50th Hike-Bike-Run held for Valley Haven School
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
VALLEY — Members of the community and local leaders gathered for the 50th Annual Hike-Bike-Run fundraising event in support of Valley Haven School on Fairfax Bypass on Saturday, May 2. Participants walked, biked and ran in competitive races over several hours with despite the unseasonably chilly, rainy weather that morning.
Once the races had been completed the results were calculated and an awards ceremony was held to recognize the top finishers.
Valley Haven School Executive Director Craig Brown shared his excitement for the successes of the event.
“This is the 50th Annual Hike-Bike-Run for Valley Haven where we come together and people run, hike or they bike to raise money for the school,” he said. “They can do it with pledge sheets or they can run in a race. We count on this every year as part of our budget. Our goal is $100,000 and we did that for 30 years. Last year we didn’t quite make it but I feel like we will make it this year.”
Brown said he appreciates and recognizes the outstanding level of support that the school receives from the community.
“It is great,” he said. “Times have changed but the thing about this school and this area is these people support us and they always go above and beyond to make sure that we have what we need. We have a lot of businesses and individuals in the community that help out, it is definitely a team effort. If we didn’t have a lot of people contributing it wouldn’t get done.”
Brown shared the impact of community donations and the importance of local help to sustain Valley Haven School in Chambers County.
“We knew it would be down numbers-wise because of the rain,” he said. “I am very pleased with the numbers money-wise. In this day and age people don’t have the funds that they used to have but this community goes above and beyond to support us every year. The sun is out now, it is pretty out and I am going to take that as God shining on us and making sure that we had a successful day.”
Brown concluded by expressed his gratitude for how local residents have come together consistently to support Valley Haven School.
“There have been some rough days but I think overall it has been a very successful year,” he said. “I think that we are going to end up reaching our goal and it is because of the people of this community. We have trike-a-thons at a lot of the schools and it is probably the best it has ever been this year for that. We just have a lot of people that believe in what we do and support us in everything. I would just like to thank them for always supporting Valley Haven and let them know that we have been in existence for over 60 years and are having our 50th Annual Hike-Bike-Run because of the generosity and the support we get from the community.”
